Nairobi, Kenya, 30 – 31 July 2010

Interoperability Challenges in ISPs’ Operations

Tamer M. Kamel,Networks Operation & Maintenance

Division, TE-DATAEgypt Manager

Regional ITU Consultation on Conformance Assessment and

Interoperability for the Africa region (Nairobi, Kenya, 30-31 July 2010 )

Agenda

TE Data @GlanceMulti-Vendor EnvironmentInteroperability ExperienceRecommendation

Nairobi, Kenya, 30 – 31 July 2010 2

TE Data @ Glance

Nairobi, Kenya, 30 – 31 July 2010 3

Nairobi, Kenya, 30 – 31 July 2010 4

TE Data MarketMarket Leader as an internet provider and data communication solutions~ 1 million home customers with 60% market share ~ 2000 enterprise customers with advanced solutions with 50% of Egypt market share~ 100 Gbps of international bandwidth capacity with 70% of total internet capacity in Egypt

Nairobi, Kenya, 30 – 31 July 2010 5

TE Data Services

Basic ServicesADSL Broadband WiFi InternetInternet Dial-up L2/L3 MPLS VPNInter-AS VPN IP Transit

Nairobi, Kenya, 30 – 31 July 2010 6

TE Data Services (Cont.)

Value Added ServicesIPTV, VoDClean Internet Video Conferencing Domain NamesVirtual Call-Center for small businessIP-SurveillanceVirtual BranchingHosting Packages, Managed Data-center

Multi-Vendor Environment

Nairobi, Kenya, 30 – 31 July 2010 7

Multi-Vendor Environment Benefits

Minimize CostReduce RiskEnrich ServicesFlexibility That Drives Innovation

Nairobi, Kenya, 30 – 31 July 2010 8

TE Data Multi-Vendor

Nairobi, Kenya, 30 – 31 July 2010 9

Core

Access

Data Center

Interoperability Experience(Time Bomb)

Nairobi, Kenya, 30 – 31 July 2010 10

Nairobi, Kenya, 30 – 31 July 2010 11

1. LACP (IEEE 802.3ad)

Failed to establish port bundle between DSLAM uplink (Vendor-A) and the access switch (Vendor-B) due to mismatch in LACP parameters.Impact:

End customers experience instabilityAdded operational cost and resourcesLoosing redundancy feature

Nairobi, Kenya, 30 – 31 July 2010 12

2. MTU (RFC-1191)

BRAS (Vendor-X) failed to establish subscriber sessions forwarded from MSAN (Vendor-Y); due to MTU mismatchImpact:

Extra Configuration and customizationAdded operational cost and resources

Nairobi, Kenya, 30 – 31 July 2010 13

3. SELT (ITU-T Study group 15)

Couldn't perform copper line inspection by an application (Vendor-A) due to limited functionality of some DSLAM platform in SNMP and SELT test (Vendor-B) DSLAMImpact:

No access to SELT servicesDifficulties in maintenance operations

Nairobi, Kenya, 30 – 31 July 2010 14

4. xDSL (ITU G992.x)

CPEs commit support of line-codes; while some are not functioning well Impact:

Extra configuration neededDifficulties in maintenance operations

Nairobi, Kenya, 30 – 31 July 2010 15

5. MAC Address (IEEE 802)

many CPE brands use non-unique and fake MAC address during encapsulating PPP frame; causing duplicate MAC at DSLAM side and session may be dropped.Impact:

Difficulties in maintenance operationsAdded cost to replace CPEs

Nairobi, Kenya, 30 – 31 July 2010 16

6. SNMP

ATM DSLAM (Vendor-X) not supporting the standard an complete MIB tree; causing poor discovery and management through the SNMP servers Impact:

Hard to provision and to operate through management serversAdded operational costs and resources

Recommendations

Nairobi, Kenya, 30 – 31 July 2010 17

Nairobi, Kenya, 30 – 31 July 2010 18

Recommendations

Operators should share their experience and knowledge regarding interoperability through standard bodies.ITU and Standard Bodies should make a program to enhance operator skills regarding standards in technology.

Nairobi, Kenya, 30 – 31 July 2010 19

Recommendations (cont.)

Local and international standard bodies help in establishing and accrediting regional LABs.Monthly Bulletin by local countries NTRA with vendors’ problems and actions

Nairobi, Kenya, 30 – 31 July 2010 20

Recommendations (cont.)

Hardware and software suppliers should mention the certificates of the products regarding the introduced features and its interoperability with other suppliers.   

  

THANK YOU

Nairobi, Kenya, 30 – 31 July 2010 21